A sea change ahead for recreational water quality criteria.
The United States Environmental Protection Agency is committed to developing new recreational water quality criteria for coastal waters by 2012 to provide increased protection to swimmers. We review the uncertainties and shortcomings of the current recreational water quality criteria, describe critical research needs for the development of new criteria, as well as recommend a path forward for new criteria development. We believe that among the most needed research needs are the completion of epidemiology studies in tropical waters and in waters adversely impacted by urban runoff and animal feces, as well as studies aimed to validate the use of models for indicator and pathogen concentration and health risk predictions.
Boehm
Alexandria B
AB
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA. aboehm@stanford.edu
Ashbolt
Nicholas J
NJ
Colford
John M
JM
Dunbar
Lee E
LE
Fleming
Lora E
LE
Gold
Mark A
MA
Hansel
Joel A
JA
Hunter
Paul R
PR
Ichida
Audrey M
AM
McGee
Charles D
CD
Soller
Jeffrey A
JA
Weisberg
Stephen B
SB
D004755:Enterobacteriaceae / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D004784:Environmental Monitoring / Q000592:standards*; D006801:Humans; D009792:Oceans and Seas; D018570:Risk Assessment; D013550:Swimming / Q000592:standards*; D014481:United States; D014484:United States Environmental Protection Agency / Q000592:standards*; D014871:Water Microbiology / Q000592:standards*; D014876:Water Pollution; D014944:World Health Organization